A lobster specimen. (Photo: StockFile)

Kelly Cove Salmon ordered to pay USD 492,000 over lobster kills

Aquaculture firm Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd pleaded guilty last week to illegally using a pesticide that contributed to lobster deaths in the waters of southwestern New Brunswick. The company was sentenced in St Stephen Provincial Court for violations of the Fisheries Act and ordered to pay a total of CAD 500,000 (approximately USD 492,000).

The total amount ordered for Kelly Cove Salmon to pay is one of the largest and most significant penalties ever levied in Canada, and the largest ever in New Brunswick, for a violation of the Fisheries Act. Out of the total, CAD 50,000 (USD 49,166) will go to the Environmental Damages Fund, CAD 250,000 (USD 245,828) will go towards scholarships, CAD 100,000 (USD 98,331) will be directed in support of environmental studies and research projects and CAD 100,000 is the court fine.

"It's in the top three fines in Canada," said Robert Robichaud, regional operations manager for the environmental enforcement division in New Brunswick, CBC News reports. "We feel that it will definitely send strong message, not only to the aquaculture sector, but to other marine users, that the illegal use of pesticides is simply not tolerable."

Kelly Cove Salmon, a division of Cooke Aquaculture, pleaded guilty to releasing cypermethrin on 15 separate sites and into the waters of southwestern New Brunswick, even though it is an agricultural pesticide banned for use in marine environments because of its proven toxicity to crustaceans, including lobsters and shrimp. Kelly Cove used the pesticide to treat a major sea lice infestation in their salmon farm, even while knowing that it was illegal to do so, The Digby Courier reports.

On 19 November 2009, Environment Canada was alerted that lobster fishers in the area were coming across dead and dying lobsters in their traps. Hundreds of lobsters were affected in 2009 and 2010.

Environmental Enforcement officers then headed to area and collected samples of the afflicted lobsters from Grand Manan and Deer Island, together with fish, mussels and kelp in the affected areas.

These samples were subsequently sent to Environment Canada’s lab in Moncton for forensic analysis. The results showed that the dead lobsters had been exposed to cypermethrin.

At that point, Environment Canada’s enforcement officers began conducting an intensive two-year investigation. The group’s Atlantic Laboratory for Environmental Testing conducted much of the research used in this court case.

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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